Cooper

2006

In the spring, Alejandro's band entered the recording studio to lay down four new tracks, released after the summer as a four-track EP titled "Días de cine" ("Cinema days", the title of a cult late night TV show on Spanish TV). The cinematic references can be found above all in the titles of the three original songs we find in this new deliver of our best guitar pop songsmiths, which means as well the return of COOPER to live shows and concerts, presenting these new songs on the road during the last weeks of 2006.

The record opens with "El sur", a guitar pop song that had already been played live by Álex Diez and his band in their latest shows. The following tracks are "Rainman", a mid-tempo that follows the tracks of TEENAGE FANCLUB's guitar work, and "Un día de furia", a song so new it didn't even have a title when they entered the studio to record it, which starts and finishes with a catchy distorted synthesizer riff giving the counterpart to the vocal lines. As a bonus track, COOPER close this magnificent EP with a version of the 90's guitar pop classic "Where I find my heaven", originally by the GIGOLO AUNTS.

On its first week out the single climbs directly up to number 5 on the Spanish lists, sharing space with such acts as DEPECHE MODE or Madonna.

The videoclip of the song "Un día de furia", directed by Joel Rojas and Marc Molina (The Hands Collective, IT'S NOT NOT) is based on the tribute to the painting "Wild strawberry eclipse, 1988" by American pop artist Robert Rauschenberg, included in the song lyrics.

In the last months of 2006 and the first months of 2007, COOPER tours promoting "Días de cine" with many shows all over the country.

2007

On the day they were finishing their successful series of shows at El Sol in Madrid, presenting the EP "Días de cine", Álex Diez said jokingly that COOPER were "Spanish pop's best kept secret". The game continues, because the band's seventh single is actually titled "Guárdame un secreto" ("Keep a secret for me"). We can find some on this new EP that adds up to COOPER's already brilliant list of small format records. Four songs that follow up from the previous one from the very cover, with Catherine Deneuve starring again, and introducing the band's new drummer, Nacho García (WINNERYS).
"Canción de viernes" opens the EP with the classic COOPER sound, self-referencing their own repertoire as in songs like "Vértigo" or "Nudo en la garganta" (in fact the repetition of words from these songs is absolutely conscious). "Mi diario" is about emotional instability -a secret to keep, hidden from the rest-, in a power pop style. "Steph" is a precious song, poetic and very moving, with a different sound to the band's previous efforts: as if SHAZAM would play a BEATLES song with Evan Dando. If anything. The last song (the last one?), "Flea market", is a comeback to Álex's anglophile roots, a danceable instrumental number lead by Carlo Coupé's marvelous organ. With this guest musician COOPER travel to places where they could meet THE SMALL FACES, JAMES TAYLOR QUARTET or, of course, Álex's previous band LOS FLECHAZOS.

A videoclip has been filmed of "Canción de viernes", filmed in Spain even though it seems it could have been done in Finland. All the credit for this illusion goes to director Juan Marigorta, who has already directed other videos from the band as "Rabia", "Cerca del sol" or "Cierra los ojos".

In the first week that "Guárdame un secreto" was on sale, it hit  number 2 on the list of Singles sold in Spain and it stayed on the charts for the following fifteen consecutive weeks.

2008

On October comes out "Lemon Pop", this single is one and only. COOPER is living it up right now, with more encouragement as the days go by and with four songs that demonstrate their four poles of pop, the four poles of COOPER. “El Círculo Polar” starts it off with 100% COOPER flavour, the classic sound of the band, as in “Vertigo” and “Cierra los Ojos,” but it is surprisingly a cover of MYRACLE BRAH. A perfect adaptation of “Getting Over Delusion” which COOPER has made their very own and one which Andy Bopp is absolutely delighted with. “En el Sofa” is beautiful, a song about perfect love, peaceful, gentle, with delicious words about the beloved. As Álex says in his own words, “It’s the perfect sweet ingredient which could not be left off an EP, the summer hit which everyone discovers in autumn. With “Ruido,” the crazy guitar comes in with the accelerated powerpop, the rebellious young, shedding off many songs from LOS FLECHAZOS and which culminated in “Rabia”, the first cousin and predecessor to “Ruido.” “Ola de calor” - similar to “Steph”- is an exceptional song of COOPER, different but catchy, and the first time you hear the track, it converts into an immediate favourite: pop, colourful and psychedelic, very sixties and yet modern at the same time, fun, fresh and catchy and with two of Álex’s favourite groups: SMALL FACES and CREATION.. But wait...don’t turn it off just yet, there’s still more! As if these four songs and the delicious cover were not enough, although this time it’s not Catherine Deneuve as the protagonist, we wanted to give a gift to all COOPER fans and that is why we decided to include a fifth track. This track is composed of over an hour of cover songs played live at the infamous COOPER concert in Madrid on January 18, 2008 at Gruta 77. A full hour with COOPER live performing their favourite songs from various groups, decades and styles. From GIGOLO AUNTS to BUZZCOCKS, going through BADFINGER, THE MUFFS, THE HOLLIES, NACHA POP and THE FOUNDATIONS and last, but not least, LOS FLECHAZOS.

"Lemon Pop" could not have asked for a better journey, from its release and for seven consecutive weeks, it remains at NUMBER 1! Few indie artists have managed to reach number 1 and even less have maintained this status for so many consecutive weeks headlining the Singles List.

Everything appears to be ready for the group’s takeoff once the new album is out in March 2009 and whose title is “Aeropuerto.” With a bit of patience, little by little, album to album and show to show, COOPER did it!

The 23th March is released "Aeropuerto". Álex Diez explains the title of this new album in this way: “I don’t think airports are transient places. For me, they are a starting point and a final destination. Origin and destination. Start and finish. The beginning of an adventure, that seems full of feelings and experiences to still to discover, or the end of the road, that asks you to go over everything you’ve experienced since you started out. I like to think that this album is like that: a one-way ticket for those who don’t already know COOPER and also a photo album to look back over these last years for those who have traveled with us”.

Begins a tour to promote this new album. They visit stages located throughout the Spanish territory and national festivals such as the Festival VI Indyspensable of Madrid, Benicassim International Festival (where they act just before Paul Weller), Contempopranea, Fuengirola Pop Weekend, Lemon Pop or Twoday Festival. They participate also in the british Indietracks Festival which pays homage to Elefant Records for the twentieth birthday of the label.

2010

"Aeropuerto" is one of the best albums of the year for Efe Eme.

The gigs continue, and Álex is working on new songs for a new release.

Alexpresents his first editorial work, titled Club 45. In it, and with 90 songs that serve as a pretext to portray people and an entire effervescent era of pop culture, Cooper serves us up a sixties session that covers 1964 to 1968. Along with the representative protagonists and diehards of that emerging scene (the collection begins with The High Numbers, and their I’m the Face, and ends with Los Iberos and Hiding Behind My Smile), on this highway, at the speed of 45 revolutions per minute, each stop is a historic single or a single that made history. In Club 45 there will be stops for people who transcended their era. For various reasons. But they will always have the right to drive on the left in the English style or on the right, in the continental. + info: http://www.club45.es

2011

Every year, all around the world, Record Store Day is celebrated. Record Store Day was created for and by music, and thousands of independent and specialized stores come together in order to make this great event happen, getting incredible, one-of-a-kind releases ready for the day. Here at Elefant Records we are congratulating ourselves for celebrating this special day in Spain for the first time, and we’re going to have a really special release, a limited-edition vinyl single by COOPER that collects live sessions of the songs “Hyde Park”, “En el Sofá”, and the previously unreleased “Mi Universo”, as well as a cover of Elvis Costello’s “Alison” will be released.

At the end of June COOPER goes to London to begin recording their next album “Mi Universo”. They will travel with José M Rosillo, who will be in charge of production for the album, where they will record in nothing less than the Konk Studios, one of the most legendary studios in the north of London that got the KINKS’ Ray Davies started at the beginning of the 70s. As the culmination of their London adventure, on July 7th and 8th, COOPER play two live shows in two different clubs in the British capital.

Virtual tour for “Mi Universo” from November 8th to November 17th. Over the course of ten days, on ten different websites, the ten songs on the album will be debuted one by one, each with its own new video made just for this occasion. So, starting November 8th, we can discover, each day on a different website, Alex Diez’s new songs, with their marvellous videos that transport us to each song’s universe, as well as show us some moments of the album recording process in the legendary British studios.

20/10/2011

COOPER Virtual tour for “Mi Universo” [from 8th to November 17th]    

2012
 

26/01/2012 
COOPER: The tour for “Mi universo” begins, with a Single give-away!!!

20/06/2012 
Alex COOPER: will DJ in LE MANS CLASSIC GOES MOD

06/11/2012

COOPER “Arizona” [Vinyl single] with B-side LOS BRINCOS’ “Tú Me Dijiste Adiós”

18/12/2012

COOPER: Release a Double-DVD Book “A Propósito De Cooper”